During the next decades, the generation of sustainable energy will become one of the main challenges of our civilization. Worldwide energy demand is expected to grow from about 10 GTep (1010 Tep [Ton Equivalent Petrol], or 5*1019 Joule) in the beginning of the century to 15-20 GTep by 2050. Some scenarios predict even levels as high as 40 GTep. An analysis of future global petrochemical consumption needs (i.e. energy needs and/or raw material for chemical industry) implies that early petrol shortages might already appear in the mid of the century. The need for large scale renewable energy sources is underlined by the global warming due to increasing CO2 levels which is a by-product of the energy generation process using any kind of fossil fuel.
These predictions have stimulated rapid growth in the development of renewable energy. Wind farms, hydroelectric power plants, thermal power stations, and solar power plants all need a certain area of land, which is costly and can negatively affect the environment.
Solar energy is a clean and inexhaustible natural resource and one of the most promising renewable energy. An estimated 10,000 GTep of solar radiation reaches the earth every year, while perhaps only 5 GTep of usable solar power would be needed to make a significant step toward global energy sustainability. However, for solar power plants to offer the same generating capacity and supply stability as traditional power plants, the required land area is enormous.
In order to efficiently use the available surface area, therefore, solar power could be moved to lakes or oceans, improving the utilization of land while preserving human living space and land for agriculture. Consequently, floating solar arrays have generated great interest in recent years. One discussion of this technology appears in “Solar Islands: A new concept for low-cost solar energy at very large scale,” posted by Francois Cellier on May 20, 2008 in The Oil Drum: Europe (http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/4002). Other designs appear in the patent databases, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,350,143; 7,063,036; 7,891,351; 8,176,868; and 8,183,457; and in U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2007/0283999; 2008/0257398; 2009/0314926; 2011/0291417; 2012/0305051; 2013/0146127; and 2014/0034110.
Despite much study, there remains a need for a floating photovoltaic system which can overcome certain problems encountered in the prior art.